Leighton Photography & Imaging

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  • A beautiful specimen of an adult northern scorpion sits on a rock covered with brilliant teal-colored lichens in Central Washington State. This inch-and-a-quarter beauty is the most northern species of scorpion and is the only one found in the upper Pacific Northwest. Completely harmless to humans, the sting will burn and cause numbness, so caution is advised.
    Adult Northern Scorpion (Paruroctonu..eus)
  • A tiny northern scorpion is discovered under a small rock in Central Washington State. Probably only a second or third instar, this almost half-inch fat little arachnid is just about ready to molt, judging by the darkening skin along its sides. When it does molt, it will shed its skin and a fresh, slightly larger scorpion will emerge.
    Baby Northern Scorpion (Paruroctonus..eus)
  • The lesser striped scorpion (Hoffmannius coahuilae) is a small and somewhat high-strung burrowing scorpion found in the American Southwest. Although this one stung the stick I was using to position it for this photo about a dozen times, the venom is temporarily painful but certainly not dangerous.
    Lesser Stripetail Scorpion
  • A view of the lesser striped scorpion (Hoffmannius coahuilae) showing how well it blends in with its environment. Normally a burrowing species, this one was found under a rock and gently coaxing onto the top of this rock for this photograph before being gently placed safely back under its original rock.
    Lesser Stripetail Scorpion
  • High on the plateau north of Moab, Utah, this extremely feisty and aggressive little Beck's desert scorpion was found under a shaded rock on a hot summer day at the far northeastern end of its range. I had to consult a professional arachnologist for the correct ID of this species as far too many of these small desert species look very similar.
    Beck's Desert Scorpion (Paruroctonus..cki)
  • Easily North America's most common scorpion, the striped bark scorpion (Centruroides vittatus) is a medium-sized species found across most of the southern states and many of the states in Mexico. Perhaps one of the reasons for its geographical success is the fact that it can thrive in an amazing variety of habitats. It is found in deserts, grasslands, coniferous forests, deciduous forests and is found living under tree bark, rocks and any other suitable environment it can find. Unfortunately this is where it often is found among human habitation. Painful yet mostly harmless, this scorpion is not considered dangerous, unless you are a cricket, beetle or some other such small prey. This one was photographed in the Chihuahuan Desert's Guadalupe Mountains in NW Texas near the New Mexico border.
    Striped Bark Scorpion
  • Top view of the lesser striped scorpion (Hoffmannius coahuilae). I found this and about seven or eight others under rocks in the Guadalupe Mountains in Northwestern Texas.
    Lesser Stripetail Scorpion
  • Typically high-strung and aggressive, this large northern scorpion (Paruroctonus boreus) is perhaps the biggest I've ever seen at just over 4cm in length and the only one that ever let me touch it without trying to sting me. I found this one near Lake Lenore at the base of some basalt cliffs under a rock in rural Grant County, Central Washington.
    Northern Scorpion (Paruroctonus boreus)
  • Wind scorpions get their name because they are "fast like the wind". While related to scorpions, they fit into their own category or arachnids which also includes spiders. These highly aggressive solitary predators live in very dry, arid habitats where they hunt at night by actively zigzagging across across the ground or sand until they encounter and overpower an unfortunate insect, spider, scorpion or even the occasional lizard. Once pinned down with the two large front legs (pedipalps), the wind scorpion doesn't even wait to kill its prey. It will immediately start tearing into its meal with the two dark pincers near the mouth (they look like fangs) and devour it as quickly as possible, before the wind scorpion might in turn become the prey of some even larger predator. This one was stalked/chased and photographed in rural Cibola County, New Mexico, about 70 miles west of Albuquerque.
    Pale Windscorpion
  • Wind scorpions get their name because they are "fast like the wind". While related to scorpions, they fit into their own category or arachnids which also includes spiders. These highly aggressive solitary predators live in very dry, arid habitats where they hunt at night by actively zigzagging across across the ground or sand until they encounter and overpower an unfortunate insect, spider, scorpion or even the occasional lizard. Once pinned down with the two large front legs (pedipalps), the wind scorpion doesn't even wait to kill its prey. It will immediately start tearing into its meal with the two dark pincers near the mouth (they look like fangs) and devour it as quickly as possible, before the wind scorpion might in turn become the prey of some even larger predator. This one was stalked/chased and photographed in rural Cibola County, New Mexico, about 70 miles west of Albuquerque.
    Pale Windscorpion
  • This amazing member of the arachnid family is related to spiders and true scorpions, but is in a class of its own. I found this small yet vicious solifugid hiding under a rock in rural Clark County, Nevada about an hour east of Las Vegas.
    Pale Windscorpion
  • This particularly spiky fishhook cactus (also known as a barrel cactus) is common in the Four Corners region where Arizona, Colorado, New Mexico, and Utah meet. What is interesting about this cactus is that it is a xerophyte - which means it is extremely tough in extreme environments, and can withstand long periods of time with little to no water in the blistering summer heat of the high desert in summer, and the deep freeze of winter. If you look closely, you can see where a scorpion has dug a burrow under this one, high on the plateau north of Moab, Utah.
    Smallflower Fishhook Cactus
  • This incredible wild and harsh desert near the Mexican town of Sonoyta is deep in the Ajo Mountain range in Southern Pima County, Arizona. Saguaro cacti, gila monsters, rattlesnakes, scorpions, tarantulas, a searing sun are staples of this dangerous part of the Sonoran Desert, and there is a long, deep history among the remnants of the Tohono O'odham Nation who thrived here for centuries, and the ancestral Puebloans who created a vibrant culture here before them.
    Diablo Mountains, Arizona
  • Quite a lucky find! While flipping over rocks searching for scorpions in northwestern Texas I chanced upon a (possibly brand new) desert subterranean termite colony. Normally found deep underground, under the rock I found the big queen termite, the king termite similar-looking but much smaller, and a number of worker termites. Hazarding a somewhat educated guess I'm going to say that these belong to the native Reticulitermes genus - a beneficial species that takes the role of fungus and algae in breaking down plant and wood material in the most arid of deserts where fungi and algae can't survive.
    Desert Subterranean Termites
  • A female eastern collared lizard hunts in the middle of a Texas springtime day in the Guadalupe Mountains for insects, spiders and scorpions on the side of an arroyo.
    Eastern Collared Lizard
  • Close-up of a beautiful curious eastern collared lizard in Northwestern Texas as she scrambles across the Guadalupe Mountains in search insects, spiders and scorpions in the Chihuahuan Desert.
    Eastern Collared Lizard
  • The mouse spider is a beautiful, velvety (hence the name) brown spider and accidental European import that has established itself across much of North America. This speedy predator does not use a web to catch prey, but rather prefers to chase down and overpower insects and other spiders. At less than an inch in length, this spider is completely harmless to humans, unless you are in fact the size of a cricket. This mature female was found under a rock between Ellensburg and Vantage, Washington while hunting for scorpions.
    Mouse Spider
  • The mouse spider is a beautiful, velvety (hence the name) brown spider and accidental European import that has established itself across much of North America. This speedy predator does not use a web to catch prey, but rather prefers to chase down and overpower insects and other spiders. At less than an inch in length, this spider is completely harmless to humans, unless you are in fact the size of a cricket. This mature female was found under a rock between Ellensburg and Vantage, Washington while hunting for scorpions.
    Mouse Spider
  • Despite it not actually being a crab, the completely harmless Atlantic horseshoe crab is an ancient marine arthropod more closely related to spiders and scorpions. Extremely common in Florida, this big female was in the shallows on the northern Gulf of Mexico on Bald Point, just outside of Ochlockonee Bay.
    Atlantic Horseshoe Crab
  • Unusual as it sounds, this Pacific treefrog was found under a rock in a sagebrush desert in Central Washington as I was looking for snakes and scorpions. While normally associated with damp forests, this highly adaptable amphibian can be found from sea level to alpine mountain habitats, and is very common in the Pacific Northwest. Considered a keystone species, their abundance in the wild is important to many other species that rely on the Pacific treefrog as a food source.
    Pacific Treefrog